Txirrita

Although he was heir to the baserri, he left the farm and started working as bricklayer. He began his career as a bertsolari aged 14, being in the company of bertsolaris much older than himself. He stood out by his sharp wit and agile tongue, and his witticisms left a lasting memory.

Many of his bertsos deal with social issues, and the thoughts and feelings of the lower classes. As Antonio Zavala was told, many people sought out Txirrita to ask him to compose a bertso against other people. The subject of many of these bertsos was that of unrequited love. Txirrita composed his bertsos on the subject required and his nephew would write them down, later putting them into print, and after selling them on the fairs.

Thanks to collective memory and collectors of bertso-papers like Antonio Zavala, many of these bertsos were recorded. Txirrita became the prototypical bertsolari - an old bachelor, reveller and rogue. Although he was a skillful bricklayer, he didn't enjoy work, and at every opportunity he would seek out a tavern to drink, sing bertsos or bet. Txirrita was unschooled and although he could read, he could not write, and he would dictate bertsos to his nephew.

In 1935 he was the runner-up in the first bertsolari championship of the Basque Country, and the year after won the championship.

In Bilbao, Hernani and Altza three streets bear his name. In Errenteria there is an industrial park called Txirrita-Maleo, named after its location between the farmhouses of Txirrita and Maleo.